Sonic Underground
Sonic Underground is a French/American animated television series that air on TV on August 30, 1999 to 22 October 22, 1999. In this 3rd cartoon of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic and his two siblings, Manic and Sonia are the hit rock band, Sonic Undeground. But in reality they are the children of Queen Aleana, the queen of Mobius. Queen Aleana was abandoned from Mobius by Sonic's enemy, Dr. Robotnik who turned Mobius into a waste land. So now Sonic, Manic and Sonia must fight Dr. Robotnik and his two sidekicks, Sleet and Dingo and the SWAT Bots, with the aid of their metal medallions and bring peace to Mobius and find mother! Will the hedgehogs find their mother? Will they defeat Robotnik? The resistance begins on Sonic Undergroud! Sonic Underground bears little relation to the often complex Sonic universe (including previous animated series, as well as Sonic comics and games), and shares only three established characters. Sonic Underground takes place on Mobius, similar to the Sonic the Hedgehog TV series, but with notable differences. Elements that are not included in Sonic Underground but were present in Sonic the Hedgehog include Snively, Power Rings, Knothole Village, and the Freedom Fighters. Though the Freedom Fighters were included, many of the characters in the Freedom Fighter group that were in Sonic the Hedgehog are completely left out (including Tails). Another difference with the Freedom Fighter group is that Freedom Fighters do not remain in one Knothole-like refuge but instead travel around Mobius to battle Robotnik's forces on a global scale; and that Robotnik has left most of the Mobian people de-roboticized, leaving multiple cities, a poor underclass and an aristocracy for the heroes to interact with. Another notable difference is Robotnik's choice of law enforcement in the two continuities. While both versions featured SWATbots as Robotnik's grunt troops, their designs differed by a mile and more. The SatAM SWATbots also all looked identical, while the Underground SWATbots had two different head designs. Production :Development It is often said that SEGA contacted DiC Entertainment to make a new Sonic cartoon, which would help gain interest in buying their new console, the Dreamcast. Sonic Underground started production in early 1997, around the same time the development of both the Dreamcast and Sonic Adventure had started. The show was developed at a rushed pace. Two episodes per week were produced, and the writers were not given enough time to "tie everything together" in the plot, being limited to a "three-part origin story" for coherency. DIC used "cattle calls" to generate episode plots: periodically, about twenty unaffiliated writers were brought into the studios to learn about the established characters and brainstorm possible plots for episodes, after which about one or two would be selected. While it was believed for a while that 65 episodes were made of which only 40 aired (since there were supposedly 65 planned), Ben Hurst, a main writer from Sonic the Hedgehog (dubbed SatAM by fans), who was also involved in Sonic Underground's production, stated in a chat at the Sonic Amateur Games Expo 20087 that only 40 were ever made. :Broadcast During the build-up to the launch of the Sega Dreamcast, Sega began heavily advertising their major franchises. For Sonic, they contacted DiC Entertainment, who previously made both TV shows Sonic the Hedgehog and Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, to make a new Sonic cartoon. Due to low popularity, Sonic Underground was canceled before it was finished, running for only one season, 1999 to 2000. Since then, the show can be found in syndication on a few channels. In October 2010, American channel This TV announced they would air the series alongside Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog as part of its Sunday morning line-up. Sonic Underground began airing on Disney XD on 11 June 2012, but was later taken off the schedule on 14 September 2012, it later returned for a week on 10 December 2012, but was replaced on 14 December 2012 with Kick Buttowski: Suburbian Daredevil. Plot The show takes place in a separate canon and continuity than any other Sonic the Hedgehog media. Queen Aleena, the former ruler of Mobius, was overthrown by Dr. Robotnik and his sidekicks Sleet and Dingo. Robotnik seized control of the planet and forced Queen Aleena into hiding. To preserve the dynasty, Queen Aleena separated her three children: Sonic, Manic, and Sonia after the Oracle of Delphius told her of a prophecy, proclaiming that one day, Queen Aleena would reunite with her children to form the "Council of Four," and overthrow Robotnik. Meanwhile, Dr. Robotnik did his best to set up an autocratic government, and legally turned anyone who stood against him into robots devoid of freewill, and forced the nobles into paying large amounts of money to him as tribute. When Sonic, Manic, and Sonia grew up, the Oracle of Delphius revealed the prophecy to them. After that, Sonic, Manic, and Sonia decided to go on a quest, searching throughout Mobius for Queen Aleena. Dr. Robotnik, with the assistance of the Swat-Bots and his bounty hunters Sleet and Dingo, tries constantly to capture the royal hedgehogs and prevent the prophecy from being fulfilled. The Oracle of Delphius has assigned the three siblings powerful "medallions" that can change into musical instruments, and can also be used as weapons. Sonic's medallion is an electric guitar, Sonia's medallion is a keyboard that functions as a smoke machine, and Manic's medallion is a drumset that can be used as an "earth controller" with cymbals that can deflect laserfire. All of the medallions can be used as laser guns. The three use the amulets not only to fight Robotnik's forces but to also as instruments for their underground rock band, "Sonic Underground." Theme Songs :Opening *'Sonic Underground' Episodes :40 Voice Cast :Japanese * :English * Trivia *This is not a sequel or spin-off of any of the other earlier "Sonic" programs, but a new series altogether. *This is the only DiC Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon to have Jaleel White being the voice of more than one character. *The last DiC Sonic the Hedgedog cartoon to feature Jaleel White as the voice of Sonic. *Sonia is the only triplet to have a neck while Manic and Sonic don't have one. *Sonic's mohawk was redesigned to have three rows, along with his teeth being shown more and his eyelids are more visible. *According to the oracle's prophecy, the triplets someday will meet with their mother, and will join forces to defeat Robotnik and return everything to normal. But due to the series getting canceled before the original number of episodes were made, this never happened in any episode. *Sonic, Sonia, and Manic often refer to Robotnik by the derogatory nickname "Robuttnik" or "Buttnik." *This is the first Sonic television series to feature Knuckles and only one to not feature Tails. *It is also the only feature show to a relative of Knuckles: his great-grandfather Athair (originally featured in the Archie comics), who was thought to have been voiced by Sean Connery, while it was in fact voice actor Maurice LaMarche. *In the episode "Sleepers", Manic's voice is a little deeper than normal, whereas in the episode "Wedding Bell Blues," Sonic's voice was more high-pitched than normal. *In "To Catch a Queen," Manic's voice sounded more like Sonic's as he commented on parts he was stealing for an invention. Sonic's pronunciation of "Sonia" also differed throughout the series. This was probably an oversight by Jaleel White, who voiced all three siblings. *The Archie Sonic comics consider Sonic Underground as an alternate universe version of Sonic, and has made one appearance in the series, in Sonic Super Special #10. *There are only a few references to the games, including a circular floating fortress that resembles the Death Egg, the Grabber robots from Sonic 2, a large Freedom Fighter-eating spaceship called Predator which closely resembles the Egg Carrier, and Floating Island (Now known as Angel Island) which first appeared in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 along with Knuckles. *In the first episode "Beginnings," just at the beginning, there is a statue that strongly resembles King Acorn from the SatAM series. *Some fans have commented that the sanctuary at the end of episode 20, "Three Hedgehogs and a Baby," resembles Knothole Village from Sonic the Hedgehog (TV series). *The SWATbots in "Who Do You Think You Are" have a different voice. *Brian Drummond (Knuckles), Samuel Vincent (Sonic's singing voice), Ian James Corlett, and Terry Klassen eventually appeared in the 2000s series Baby Looney Tunes as Floyd (Season 2 only), Baby Bugs, Baby Daffy, Baby Tweety, Baby Taz and Baby Sylvester respectively. *In the episode Wedding Bell Blues, when the trio are carpet cleaners, Manic and Sonic look like the Mario Brothers. *In the episode Mobodoon, Manic states that, "when the moon is full on the second even day of the third month, BAM, it shows up just like clockwork. Today's the day, and I just know that when Mobodoon shows up, so will Mom!" In that particular episode, the hedgehogs had stated that it was their birthday. So, their birthday is, in fact, March 4. *Sonic cried once through the whole series ("Beginnings"), Manic cried four times ("Mobodoon," "Three Hedgehogs and a Baby," "Six is a Crowd," and "The A.R.T. of Destruction"), and Sonia cried the most out of all (nine times). *Sonic's last words in the series were "Game over, Buttnik!" *There are several errors that always occur, such as when Medallions are missing, Manic has his earrings on his right ear, Manic's fanny-pack is missing, and gloves or arms are in a different color. There have also been perspective issues. *In the episode, "The Big Melt," when Manic comes out of the water and coughs, it's in Sonic's voice, and in "Beginnings" and "Haircraft in Space," you can see Sonic's mouth move to Sonia's voice, and vice versa. *In the episode "Beginnings," when the photo of the three is shown, they are not babies, but toddlers. Aleena separated them when they were babies. *The medallion strings are in different colors rather than what many people think to be green, blue, and pink. Sonic has a red string, Sonia has a yellow string, and Manic has a blue string. *In the episode "Underground Masquerade," the purple mask worn by Manic and Max bares slight resemblance to NiGHTS into Dreams..., another game by Sonic Team. *The episode "Sonic Tonic" recycles the general plot of the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog episode "Full-Tilt Tails." *The siblings' father was never mentioned. However, the French theme song of the show implied that there was no king at the time that Sonic and his siblings were born. *In episode 7, Sonic is holding a yellow controller similar to a Sega Genesis controller. *In the episode "The Big Melt," Sonic and Manic are shown joining their force to do a huge version of the "Sonia Spin," a move that Sonic and Sonia were shown doing together before. However, as Manic doesn't have any physical superpower, he normally can not perform this move. *The series was streamed on Netflix, but the episodes are completely out of order on Netflix and from episodes 27-40 the title screen for the episodes and the end credits are in French. As of 31 October 2013, Sonic Underground is no longer on Netflix. In 2014, Sonic Underground returned to Netflix. *This is the first animated adaption to have animation done digitally.